The New Scientist predicts that by 2020 there may be two billion people speaking English across the world. Only 300 million of those will be native speakers. At that point English, Spanish, Hindi, Urdu and Arabic will have an equal number of native speakers.
Whilst English is not the most spoken language in the world, it is certainly the most influential. Varieties of it can be heard across the world that certainly wouldn’t be recognised in the English shires. So that begs the question, do we (us native English speakers) own our language any more?
What has become my language has come a long way. From the remnants of the Latin left behind by the Romans, it has been influenced and bastardised by Scandinavians, Germans and the French. It produced some of the world’s greatest writers in Chaucer and others even before it was recognisable to the modern ear. Then Shakespeare got hold of it and made an incalculable contribution to making it a language that would conquer the world like no other has ever done before.
In its conquering of the world, it has mutated. There are areas where the language that is spoken is as far from the way I speak on a daily basis as sixteenth century Shakespeare or even fourteenth century Chaucer. A century from now, there’s every chance that my grandchildren will not understand their American counterparts.
Even now, there are varieties of English developing in South East Asia that are taking it off in completely new directions. This is not hip-hop or any other sub-culture, these are new languages.
Singlish is a “Singaporean creole” spoken by a majority of Singaporeans and consisting of a mixture of modern English, Malay and Chinese. I’ve never heard it but I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t understand it.
Panglish is a version of the language that may develop as spoken by non-native speakers. As such, constructs that they find difficult may be eliminated. “The” will be replaced by
a “z” or an “s” and similarly the “s” will be lost from the third person singular removing the last piece of verb conjugation that remains to us.
Pedants may harrumph in the letters pages of The Times of London or make endless complaints to the BBC and I will still maintain that the “incorrect” use of language negates its ability to communicate. But lazy English is not the same as new English. BBC broadcaster John Humphrys holds that correct English is not about strictly adhering to a set of hard and fast rules like to some extent French is, but about maintaining a commonly held corpus of words and usage that is understood by all.
The French (and French Canadians) try to protect their language from outside influences – notably “Anglo-Saxon” – rather like King Canute trying to hold back the waters. English doesn’t have that luxury (or curse). It has developed as it has because is ready to accept outside influences, even French ones. Nobody owns it.
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
